A world in transformation
Migrants bound for Germany walk through the streets of Budapest. Demotix/Beata Zawrzel. All rights reserved.The March is a remarkable film shown on TV channels across Europe all of 25 years…
Why is Turkey bombing the Kurds?
PYD checkpoint in Afrin during Syrian Kurdistan rebellion, 2012.Wikiommons/ScottBobb. Some rights reserved.'War is the continuation of politics by other means', Clausewitz famously remarked. Nowhere is this maxim better in display…
How Abraham Lincoln’s Bromance Altered The Course Of American History
In the spring of 1837, a “long, gawky, ugly, shapeless man” walked into Joshua Speed’s dry goods store in Springfield, Illinois, requesting supplies for a bed. Speed said the cost…
Federal Judge Halts Trump’s Travel Ban
On Friday night, U.S. District Judge James Robart of Washington state blocked enforcement of President Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban. In the hearing, Robart said, Immediately following the ruling, the Department of Homeland…
The Hillary Doctrine: untangling sex and American foreign policy
Freshly planted flowers surrounded the Baghdad Women’s centre, one of nine US-funded centers built across the city in 2004 that aimed to promote women’s rights in Iraq’s nascent democracy. I was…
Syrian activists are repairing the fabric of civil society, even as it comes undone
Demotix/Jacob Simkin. All rights reserved.With the advent of the Syrian uprising in 2011, the monopoly over political truth-telling shifted away from the established dissident man of letters, whose voice remained…
What The President’s Vow To ‘Destroy’ The Johnson Amendment Would Really Do
President Donald Trump recently pledged to “destroy” the Johnson Amendment, a 63-year-old law that bans charities from engaging in political activities. As Trump said this at the National Prayer Breakfast,…
Myths, moralism, and hypocrisy drive the international drug control system
Poppy cultivation in Badakhshan, Afghanistan. Getty Images / Paula Bronstein. All rights reserved. In April 2016, the international community will convene for the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on…
Climate Change Denier Who Asked Twitter To ‘Explain the Science’ Gets Owned
A recent study by Pew Research found that Democrats with a solid background in science are more likely to correctly believe that humans are causing climate change. But Republicans tend…
A case for demilitarizing the US military
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld in 2004 poses for pictures with soldiers, marines and airman outside the Abu Ghraib Detention Center, in Iraq. Wikicommons/ US Air force. Some rights…
Richard Simmons And The Agony Of Empathy
“I call you Saint Richard. Because that’s who you are.” It’s four in the morning—modern life’s most vulnerable hour—when a semi-depressed 14-year-old with light insomnia catches the beginning of an infomercial…
Time to fight for disarmament
The Disarmament Sculpture outside the UN building, New York. Luke Redmond/Flickr. Some rights reserved.To the vast majority of people 'disarmament' may sound like an ancient practice that Cold War rivals…